Pirelli and F1 held discussions over making all three compounds compulsory to use in a race. Pirelli discussed drivers using every compound in races.

Formula 1 official tyre manufacturer Pirelli admitted that in the past discussions were held in order to analyze the possibility of introducing a new rule that would make all three tyre compounds compulsory to use during a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Pirelli have been Formula 1’s exclusive tyre supplier for ten years now, during which they have introduced and decommissioned a range of different constructions.

Since their arrival in the sport the instructions on the characteristics of the Pirelli tyres have differed, and in recent years there has been a desire for compounds that would create greater variation in race strategies. Most of the times the number of pit stops a driver will make during the race is easy to anticipate, as the current rules say that two of the three available slick tyre compounds have to be used in a dry event on Sunday. Yet in the past, Pirelli did hold discussions regarding the possibility of making it mandatory that all three were used on Sunday’s main event.

This, of course, never came to fruition though, as it was decided at the time that such a rule would not make Formula 1 more entertaining for fans.

“Yeah, it was discussed a couple of years ago.” – Pirelli Formula 1 boss Mario Isola explained, in a press conference which was held at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix weekend – “And the conclusion was that forcing the drivers to use the three compounds, the result can be that everybody is just converging on the same strategy. So any time that you give more constraint, you have everybody doing the same, that is not in the spirit of what we want to achieve. It means a mix of one and two-stop strategies using the three different compounds and so on, not having everybody stopping at the same lap and changing the tyres using the same sequence of compounds. So, that’s why the idea was abandoned a couple of years ago. Obviously it is something we can discuss for the future – but I believe that, as I said, we need a regulation that is easy to understand also for spectators. Obviously encouraging different strategies but not making it too complicated with a lot of different constraints and so on. That’s probably the target for the future.” – concluded Mario Isola, Italian tyre company Pirelli’s motorsports head

The Italian manufacturer will bring a new 18-inch tyres for the start of the 2022 Formula One championship, as a result of the overhauled regulations for next year.